ACTION will be my mantra, says Shekhar Sardessai

HERALD: As the new president what is on your to do list immediately?

SHEKHAR SARDESSAI: The theme will remain the same, I am referring to ‘Action’. Meaning A: Accelerate Growth, C: Create Value, T: Think Infrastructure, I: Induce Investment, O: Organise Leadership, N: Navigate Progress. 

Principally I will go with the engagement of my predecessor. Policy advocacy will be the core and we will use the platform of Goa Promotion Board to bring about improvements in the ease of doing business. Our mission would be to make sure that Goa also rides the wave of the ‘Make in India’ movement. We will do it by making sure that our efforts are directed towards rapid and full implementation of the Goa Investment Policy so that the objective of the policy which is to make Goa an aspirational investment destination is achieved. CII believes the Goa Investment policy has been created after a lot of thought process and deliberations with stake holders. We believe that beyond policy advocacy and easing of regulations by the government, the ease of doing business is significantly impacted by an arbitrary position taken by naysayers. I will dedicate significant portion of my time and energy during my tenure for engaging with civil society to address this problem of chronic nay sayers 

HERALD: How do you intend to improve cooperation between the CII and the GCCI?

SS: The cooperation between the CII, GCCI and GSI has been excellent over the last few years. We have come on a common platform and worked with common focus and agenda to take forward the interests of our stakeholders many of whom are common across these three associations. I will continue and build on these excellent relationships.

HERALD: What is your assessment of the budget just presented by the CM?

SS: I compliment the Chief Minister for presenting a revenue surplus budget. This clearly is a development oriented budget with emphasis on infrastructure, education, health, housing, employment and social sectors.  From the industry perspective, I am happy that the budget proposes to reduce the VAT on biodegradable products – a long pending demand from CII.

We are also happy that the start-ups will now have access to seed capital through IPB to and that GIDC board will be armed with more powers to simplify procedures. Proposal for introduction of Electronic Tracking of IPB approvals is also a welcome step.

Making operational the much needed scheme for revival of sick units is also a step in the right direction and will provide a new lease of life to the entrepreneurs particularly the SME’s.

From the taxation perspective, the scheme to adjust and refund excess Input Tax Credit (ITC) by providing carried forward of excess ITC is a great  relief as this will unblock the Working Capital and ease stretched cash flows of SME units .

While we at CII and the industry was hoping to see the announcement of tax and investment related incentives for existing and new units, including announcement of NPV scheme, I am afraid we haven’t seen the any specific announcement on this front. However I hope the statement of intent regarding such incentives that appeared in the Budget speech actually translates into reality so as to make Goa an attractive investment destination keeping with the spirit and letter of the Goa Investment Policy. 

HERALD: What according to you must the Goa government undertake to boost industrialisation and job creation?

SS: I look at 3 initiatives during a year. One would be Goa Investment Summit, Goa IT summit and the Goa Aerospace and Defence summit. We believe that Goa should leverage the exposure and branding that will be achieved from these events so as to attract investments in aerospace and defence. We strongly believe that an aerospace and defence park with runaway connectivity to the upcoming MOPA international airport would be an excellent strategy to promote the aero space and defence industry. We also believe the Goa IT policy is well thought out and an IT summit would be an ideal event to jump-start this policy. CII would like the Investment policy to be implemented in full. There has to be a lot of follow though. CII could leverage on the IT national resources to promote investments in Goa.